Annouok, so I messed up. Apparently, I enrolled in the Amazon KU pn. that means book 1 ot be more than 10% shown on a website. this period is 90 days, and I will not be able to post the chapters again as I will not rehat tract....May 8th, I am sorry, as this was not my iion. I thought I just could not sell the book on different sites when I read the trabsp; Chapters 10-59 will appear after the KU tract expires

  Chapter 7: Wele to the Legion

  I looked at the door a few times before deg to go for it. The forty-foot-long corridor had two wide aisles and deep shelves packed with gear. A lot of the gear was covered in a yer of dust. I grabbed twe Legionnaire backpacks ao the provision aisle first. My dimensional space was immuo the passage of time, but all these items already had a long shelf life. The shelves were and orderly as I started filling the two packs.

  One sack of peppers, three bags of sea salt, five jars of berry preserves, six sacks of flour, twe bags of dried mushrooms, twe bags of potatoes, a bag of onions, two massive blocks of hard cheese, a dozen thick links of hard sami as rge as my forearm, twe bags of sugar, and four sealed jars that I was fairly certain were yeast.

  After cheg the door, I moved both of the stuffed, extremely heavy food backpacks to the dimensional spabsp; Then, I grabbed two more backpacks ao the clothing aisles.

  Two heavy bck oiled cloaks used as rain gear, two heavy bck wool cloaks with soft linens for warmth, two heavy wool bs for horses, six pairs of underwear, one dozen pairs of wool socks, six light undershirts, four linen pants, six leather belts, and two pairs of boots that were already broken in.

  The clothes were bulky and filled the tacks, so I sent them to my dimensional ste after recheg the door. At the end of the aisle were rge twenty-gallon casks. Most were marked as water, but a few were marked as rum or whiskey. I looked at the doorway again. It was still closed. I shifted one rum and one whiskey cask into my dimensional ste, and then two water barrels. I only had enough remaining mana to open my dimensional spaore time. I thought it best to serve it, even though I wanted a lot more in this warehouse.

  I supposed I should actually carry something out as well. I grabbed a satchel and a few more things: a bck leather-bound book with lined sheets to use as a ledger, small vials of ink and quills, a bag of apples, and a rge bag of died nuts to sna.

  I walked down the on aisle, adding some knives for cooking and two nice short swords, when the legionnaire poked his head in. “You ready? The horses are out front.” I nodded and hustled to him.

  “Do I o show what I took?” I asked, indig the room.

  “Nah, not out at a crappy outpost like this. Most of the shit in here is spoils of war. The legion patrols the trade routes north of here, and stuff just finds its way here. In the rger cities, you o be more careful. Marta just lets us take whatever when we e through here.”

  “I thought her name was Eina?” I asked, walking out with him.

  “Eina and Marta both run this outpost for the Legion. Marta is a retired legionnaire. Eina is her daughter,” he informed me.

  I followed him outside, where the ionnaire was already mounted. The man who had e to get me mounted a horse, leaving me a rge red mare. Twe empty saddle bags were draped across the rump. The two soldiers ughed as I tried to mount the horse, still wearing my backpad satchel, and holding my spears. Finally, the older of the two said, “Wylie, help him, or we will never leave.”

  The younger man came off his horse and helped me fill the saddlebags and secure my spears, and three short swords so I could mount the horse. “This is a fine mount, well trained. I sense you are not familiar with riding. Firth will not have the patieo wait, so I will do the best I to teach you as we go,” Wylie soled me.

  I was soon unfortably in the saddle and trotting out the fortification. I asked Wylie, “I didn’t know the legion rode horses.”

  “Most don’t,” he replied. “You o move with the horse, bee oh it. Otherwise, yoing to have a miserable ride.” He spent the hour of the ride teag me how to hahe reins, move with the horse, and guide it with my heels. The horse was definitely well-trained. Whehought I looked somewhat capable on the horse, he picked up the earlier versation.

  “The legionnaires are ne battle-fighting units. We are more like guards for the royalty and mages. Our charge is Mage Castile.” Wylie paused, sidering what to say. “She has a bit of a chip on her shoulder. She takes on the dirty missions ahings done.”

  I decided to broach a . “I heard that the fatality rate among her legionaries is high.”

  Wylie winced. “Yeah, you could say that. There are twenty-six of us. The veterans have been around for a while, but the raw recruits tend to get themselves killed or severely injured. You don’t o worry, though. With your ability, Castile will keep you out of the most intense bat—maybe.”

  I shifted in my saddle, starting to get unfortable and finding no way to alleviate it. Firth turo us with a grin I didn’t like. “Let’s teach the boy a light ter.” He spurred his horse forward, and Wylie shook his head and followed.

  When I got my horse moving, I bounced around like crazy. I could not find the new rhythm. The ons, although secured, were swinging slightly and tapping my babsp; When Firth mercifully stopped, my ihighs were burning and cramping. He motioned for us to get off and walk. I colpsed to the ground, uo hold myself up as my legs cramped untrolbly. Firth chuckled, and Wylie smirked slightly. “Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it; Firth isn’t the bad sort. That was just over an hour. He will let you walk it out and make you do it again.” And we did.

  I fed my mare an apple from my satchel every time we went walking. I named her Ginger after her reddish-brown coat. She seemed to like the name.

  The ss began to fade into scrub pins, and mountains appeared in the distanbsp; Firth turned and said, “Sorry, recruit. We are going to push to Formica to get there before dark.”

  The town rawl of buildings with no wall surrounding it. A rge pen of horses was on the edge of town. That was where we went. “Show the recruit how to care for the mounts,” Firth anded with a hint of impatienbsp; He then turned a for one of the rger buildings.

  Wylie showed me how to unsaddle and groom the horses, as well as where to look for chafe marks to treat with a salve. Once he thought I uood, he patted me on the shoulder, saying, “You got it, good luck,” a me to it. It took almost an hour to do the three mounts. I gave Ginger an apple, which caused all the horses to line up requesting one as well. I had to cut the apples into quarters to get all of them, and I only had three apples left when I was done.

  It was te in the evening, and I guessed I should head for the rge building that Firth and Wylie went to. Entering it, I found a rge on room where legion soldiers were zing about and drinking. I did not see either of my road panions, so I asked the legionnaire where I could find Mage Castile. He looked me over and poio a door in the babsp;

  I knocked on the door, and a harsh female voice said, “Enter!”

  I opehe door to find a middle-aged woman hunched over a map oable with two legionnaires fnking her. She gave me a hard stare. “Yes?”

  “Legionnaire Eryk Marko rep,” I said, somewhat uainly. As my training had been cut short, I had never gohrough the protocols or etiquette for someone in the legion.

  “About time. Delmar, go get the pany’s potions.” One of the mehe room, and the mage paged through some sheets oable. She finally stopped at one. Looked at me and said, “Seventeen inches?”

  I assumed she was referring to the size of the spabsp; That sounded abht. I nodded. She tinued, “Good. Your most important job is to hold the potions for the unit. They will not lose their effica dimensional ste. Also, you will hold the unit’s funds and ating logbook for unit pay and expenses.”

  The man she had called Delmar returned. He pced a small bck woode on the ter, opening it and pulling out wooden slotted trays. The potion vials were round, with a rge cap. On the cap was a lot of script. I didn’t have time to exami before I was ordered to pce the two trays with 25 potions eato my spabsp;

  I did so, and after they disappeared, Mage Castile smiled, erasing the age lines on her face. “Excellent. Adriahe unit’s ledger and chest.” The ma once more aurned with a much heavier chest. “Eryk, add these,” she ordered.

  Much like the potions, the s were seated in trays, like poker chips. Oray was full old s, and the remaining five trays were small silver s. I did my best to estimate how much a 17-inch cube could hold and not go over that amount. The thin ledger was st, and Castile watched me hawkishly as I added the book.

  With everything in my space as a tight-fitting cube, I looked up at the smiling mage. “Excellent. Now, retrieve one of the blue-green potions,” she ordered. She held up her hand. “Just the oion.” I thought about it, and she gave me a hint. “Search your dimensional ste with your mind. Choose just the item you want t out—highlight it, if you will. I tell you are opening your entire dimensional space every time you put an item in. That is a massive waste of your stored aether, and you don’t have any to waste.”

  I was getting a lesson in magibsp; I only had about 12 aether and had used two aether every time I accessed my spabsp; I did as she asked and focused oray of potions and then just the siion. I reached out and willed that one object out of the dimensional spabsp; It appeared in my hands.

  I smiled brightly, realizing I had do and used only a fragment of the aether. Before, it was like I ening a closet and routing around it. This was closer to just reag in and taking the object off a shelf. Much more effit.

  Mage Castile smiled as well. “Good work. Practice removing and pg potions. In battle, you should not hesitate in pulling the correct potion.” Her face turned serious. “Delmar, here is istics officer. You will be atable if anything is missing from the unit funds or potions.” She poio the other officer. “This is Adrian. He is responsible for the men’s duty assigs.”

  “e on, kid,” Adrian said. “I will get you settled.”

  I was almost twenty-five, so I would not say I was a kid, but I didn’t argue. He introduced me as the unit’s new porter in the rge on room. A lot of eyes studied me. I had the unit’s money and healing potions, so I was definitely a person of i.

  We went upstairs and into one of the rooms. Two bunks were in here. “The army usually uses this building, but Castile kicked them out. Get some rest; we leave at first light.”

  “Where are we going?” I asked.

  “We are looking for a Baron’s son in the mountains. His little adventuring group was hunting friffo. Wao give his father a griffon egg for his birthday. Instead, robably looking for his remains,” Adrian told me truthfully. He smiled. “Don’t worry, only oing pair otted in this region. It’s not like we will have to deal with a flock of the buggers.”

  He left, and I picked up my backpad got my bedroll. The bunks were just pnks, no mattresses. I rolled it out and undressed. My thighs were raw from the ride, the muscles knotted. I tried to rub them out, and two fellows ehe room. Their things were already on bunks.

  “Damn, mate, if you need some time alone, we’ll be ba half an hour,” one of the men said.

  The uy ughed. “Half an hour, Felix? I bet this one just needs five minutes.”

  “I’m just trying to loosen my muscles. It was my first time riding. Name is Eryk,” I said, trying to end the banter.

  “Just joking. I am Mateo, and this is Felix. We are to keep an eye on you and help you settle in. Adrian said you were raw and even pulled before you firaining?” He sat on the hard bunk.

  “Yes, I was shipped off as soon as I got my dimensional space.” I tio stretch while talking.

  Felix spoke . “Well, you got into a fine unit. It has a bad rep due th mortality rate, but that’s mostly the new recruits.” He put his hand over his mouth like he was saying somethi. “Don’t worry, Eryk. We will keep you safe and sound.”

  They set up their own beds and were soon lying down. I took out the died nuts and started eating. It was te, and no one offered me a meal. My two roommates took liberties, and soon, the nuts were gone.

  We talked about the unit; the best part was that Mage Castile had her own siphoning shield for creating essenbsp; She kept all the magical essences for herself, but rewarded the men of the legion with all the physical ones and some of the mental ones. The men were also paid ten silver a week instead of the normal five silver and forty copper, although Felix seemed to think that was mostly due to Adrian wanting to make his bookkeeping job easier.

  I ate an apple before falling asleep, w what tomorrow would bring.